مطالب

Not only in Iran, but throughout the world, banks and banking industry are considered as very important parts of the economy. This study seeks to investigate the impact of the internal characteristics of banks, the structure of the banking industry and the economic situation of Iran on the profitability of the banking system of Iran by exploring the theory of the Structuralism school concerning the impact of structure on profitability. To this end, data relating to 18 private and public banks of Iran during 2003 to 2012 are analyzed by using panel data methods. First, the profitability of the banking system is calculated using relevant indicators; and then, the impact of various internal, structural and environmental factors on bank profitability is evaluated. The results show that internal factors - the amount of capital and the size of the bank - have a positive impact on profitability. Besides, structural factors including market share and concentration are shown to have a positive impact on profitability whereas ownership appears to have no significant impact. Furthermore, inflation and economic cycles – among environmental factors – exhibit a positive impact on profitability. JEL Classifications: C23, D22, L22, L25

This paper focuses on developing models to study influential factors on the inflation rate for a panel of available countries in the World Bank data base during 2008-2012 . For this purpose , Random effect log-linear and Ordinal logistic models are used for the analysis of continuous and categorical inflation rate variables . As the original inflation rate response to variables shows an apparent right skewness , the log transformation in the linear mixed effect model seems necessery . In the ordinal logistic mixed effect model , as a new approach , the inflation rate variable is categorized based on two threshols to increase model predictibality and precision . These two models consider the potential serial correlation between annual infltion rates and categories through introducing some latent random effect parameters . The results of both models show that money growth , GDP , oil price and income levels of the available countries are significant predictors with increasing effect on the next year inflation rate category . Using the categorical inflation response variable yields some superior results where government expenditure , exchange rate and capital formation are also detected as significant determinants of ordinal inflation variable . Also , the random effect variance is highly significant in both models which shows the necessery need for consideration of the potential association of inflation variables across time . JEL Classifications: E17, E27, E31, E37, E47

Development of E-banking has modified the structure of banking business and banking performance, efficiency, risk and challenges which have also been articulately recognized based on the international best practices. E-banking brazenly expedites and streamlines financial transactions via enhancing technology and expanding the bank services in comparison with conventional banking. Accordingly, online access to the banks’ products, financial statements, payment services and even credit scoring has considerably improved bank-customer relationships in the context of lending and borrowing practice, deposit composition, investment opportunities, trade finance options as well as account management diversification. The impact of recent E-banking developments on banking is statistically tested for the banking network of Iran using Dynamic Panel Data approach. Results indicate that the ratio of ATMs and Electronic Cards to bank assets positively and significantly influence profitability ratios. Meanwhile, the ratio of online branches and Pin Pads to the banks' assets negatively and significantly affects profitability although the transaction volumes have surged for the banks under study. JEL Classification: G21, G23, G32, F34 Keywords: E-Banking, Risks, Banks' Soundness Indicators